IMO, Sarah really deserved to win that night. Whether a few of her jumps were cheated didn't matter. Of the top 4 ladies, she is the only one that stayed on her feet, and delivered a technically brilliant performance.

I agree that Sarah deserved to win, but I don't think that you can call a program with underrotated jumps and an egregious flutz "technically brilliant." It was brilliant in that Sarah was very ambitious in her content, and the choreography was interesting and complex, but from a technical perspective, there were some pretty serious flaws.

Yes, underrotated jumps will get downgraded under CoP, but that doesn't necessarily mean the underrotater can't win. We saw some pretty egregious flutzing from Ms. Cohen last year, which didn't get dinged much, either from the caller or the judging panel. Ms. Cohen fell twice in the GPF FS and still managed to rack up really high marks in Skating Components, high enough to edge Arakawa for silver.

Yes, there will be a deduction for each fall, this season, but judges can still use Skating Components marks to prop up a favored skater, just as they jacked up Presentation scores under the 6.0 system to make sure a certain skater won (remember Slutskaya's gold medal in the 2001-2002 GPF FS for an incredibly sloppy 4-triple performance?).

I think it will be perfectly possible for Cohen to continue to win without a quad or a 3/3, even if Ando manages land a perfect 4S and a clean FS, because Cohen will get always get high enough SC marks to edge out Ando.

Yes, there will be a deduction for each fall, this season, but judges can still use Skating Components marks to prop up a favored skater,l JMHO.

Easily, Tarassova herself said, this CoP will be easier for judges to cheat. When you bring up (or down) an element with a minus 3, you are really ensuring that skater does not win. Although, the random draw comes into play, it is possible for bloc judging to continue.

It would be interesting to see the complete scores and judges' NAMES at the conclusion of the competition. The measure to reveal that information was defeated by bloc voters.

I agree that Sarah deserved to win, but I don't think that you can call a program with underrotated jumps and an egregious flutz "technically brilliant." It was brilliant in that Sarah was very ambitious in her content, and the choreography was interesting and complex, but from a technical perspective, there were some pretty serious flaws.

Bittybug,

Well said. Regardless of what color medal she won, Sarah's very apparent flaws are often ignored. She was neither technically brilliant nor artistically mature in her performance, but she did attempt the most difficult jumps that night and she was the only one that delivered- to the best of HER ability.

IMO, Sarah really deserved to win that night. Whether a few of her jumps were cheated didn't matter. Of the top 4 ladies, she is the only one that stayed on her feet, and delivered a technically brilliant performance. ]IMO, Sarah really deserved to win that night. Whether a few of her jumps were cheated didn't matter. Of the top 4 ladies, she is the only one that stayed on her feet, and delivered a technically brilliant performance.

Really, what did Irina fall on? As for Sarah, had that competition been judged under CoP she wouldn't have "landed" two 3/3s because they'd be downgraded to doubles as well as some of her other triples. Sarah won the lottery in SLC in both short and long.

Irina may not have "fallen," but IIRC, she put her hand down on a jump, had a very shakey landing and came close to falling. Her triple sequence was sloppy and looked like she made a mistake, and her skating was flat. She barely stayed on her feet, and it showed and took away from her program. I will never understand why she thought she won.
Maybe Sarah would've been judged differently under COP, but Irina would've too. I'm not sure where either would've ranked at SLC under COP. Thankfully, it wasn't COP and we dont need to worry about it.

Irina may not have "fallen," but IIRC, she put her hand down on a jump, had a very shakey landing and came close to falling. Her triple sequence was sloppy and looked like she made a mistake, and her skating was flat. She barely stayed on her feet, and it showed and took away from her program. I will never understand why she thought she won.
Maybe Sarah would've been judged differently under COP, but Irina would've too. I'm not sure where either would've ranked at SLC under COP. Thankfully, it wasn't COP and we dont need to worry about it.

Irina did not fall and she did not put her hand down on a triple jump. She had a big struggle and very strange landing on the triple flip, but it was a landed jump, incredible though it may seem. She was nowhere the usual, sparkly Irina, however. She was nervous, cautious, and she could not pull off a 3-3- combination.

I have noticed that Peggy Fleming, especially, is always quite complimentary of the skill of skaters who do a bad jump but then somehow, incredibly, manage to hold on to the landing edge come hell or high water. It certainly upsets the flow of the program and it looks awkward and ungainly, but it does show a lot of physical strength and mental determination.

Irina did not fall and she did not put her hand down on a triple jump. She had a big struggle and very strange landing on the triple flip, but it was a landed jump, incredible though it may seem. She was nowhere the usual, sparkly Irina, however. She was nervous, cautious, and she could not pull off a 3-3- combination.

Vash - With all due respect to Irina and for that matter, MK and sC, too, none of these skaters had any sparkle in their skating. I believe SC wanted to be the next Tara and got nervous,. MK knew this could be her last skate as an eligible and got nervous. IS, knew she was going to win and that got her nervous.

The sixteen year old had an insignificant SP so she had nothing to lose being in fourth place except to show the audience she was a good skater. She did just that. And I really believe that the lack of sparkle in the other three was more of a comedown than the falls and bobbles.

What I seem to be seeing in the Olys which I do not see much of in the Worlds is exactly that sparkle you mentioned. For some reason the atmosphere at the Olys requires a tense situation and the winner who rises above the tension.

Irina was slow and very sloppy at SLC. Her performance had no sparkle whatsoever. Kwan may have fallen, but the adrenaline after the fall did give some spark to the remainder of her program.

Sarah won because she gave the performance of her life, even with a flawed jump technique. The SLC FS was the best she had ever skated, and that was enough to win given the lackluster performances of Cohen, Kwan and Slutskaya.